Wire twisting machine



J. J. KLAPPER ETAL 2,944,380

WIRE TWISTING MACHINE July 12, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Jan. 15, 1957fiWW/Ws Jab/7 /(/a er, f/aaa e 6. l'f/h/l:

W of il MM 4 AMMWA 26/! A/fomggs U wd mm M 2,944,380 WIRE TWISTING John.LKlapper, New Canaan, and-Claude C. Smith, In,

Stralford, Conn., assignors to General Electric Conipany, a corporationof New York Filed Jan. 15, 1957, set. No. 034,268 3 Claims. (CI. 57-34)2,944,330 Patented July 12, 1960 ice having individual machines for eachcombination as is the present practice in this industry.

stand abrasion :or scuifing without causing deleterious;

effects on its electrical,properties. Also, this fine wire cannotwithstand large tensions without'experiencing a decrease in itscross-sectional area (neckingdownyand possiblythe breakage of the wire.I 'f a Present-day twisting machines use pay'oii spools or reels whichpermit. unequal wire pay-otf resulting in different lengths of singlesin the twinned or tripled conductor. This oftentimes results in therejection of such'wire for use in finished cable. In order to twist longlengths of wire, largecapacity reels are usedwhich necessarily in-'- sOur invention comprises three main components, name- 1y, a. tensionlesspay-01f which may either be a loose coil of wire, a stationary barrel ora revolving barreL' A stationary barrel will impart some backtwist tothe finished twisted conductor. In cases where this backtwist isobjectionable, a revolving barrel can be used. The second, and mostimportant, component is the twisting head which revolves at a high speedabout a vertical axis and has meansv for gripping the wires and pullingthem through the head as they are being twisted. The pitch of thetwisted wire is a function of the amount of travel of the wire throughthe head for each revolution of the head. V

than'the' linear wire. output of the twisting head which, of

course, is a function of the speed of the twisting head, so

that the-twi's ted wire will level fill the barrel from bottom -.totopias if the twisted wire, were being folded therein rather thandropped directly-down into the barrelig Ourginvention will be'better'understood from the fol;

lowing description taken iiiconnection with the accom pany ing drawingsand its scope will be pointed out in the 3: appended claims.

crease the physical size of the machine; As a" consea quence, thislarge" size means a bulky, rugged conjstrucftion which by its verynature cannot delicately handle fine wire. Also, the size andinertia ofthe twistingmachine parts limits the maximum speed of the machine and,hence, its output. wire either has a long path or an intricate path'oversmall the insulation and the copperconductor. ,i

Figure 1. shows a perspective elevational view of two fine wiresbeingdrawn down: through the twisting head and from there being whirled intothe spinning barrel take-up having a centralcore. t

Figure 2 is an isometric view of the details of the twist- 7 ing headshowing a pair of endless belts being driven In all the present-daymachines the sheaves which imparts unnecessary, punishment to both Inrecent years, work-has beenconducted. on packaging I wire in barrelsrather than winding itv on reels; One advantage of this is that thebarrels are usually of heavy duty cardboard construction whichresults inalightweight container as compared with a heavy wooden or steel reel.The wire is merely laidin the barrel in a loose pack so that itis' aneasy matter to place the wire in the barrel and to remove it withoutexertingmuch tension.

on thewire. 2

Accordingly, thetprincipal object of this invention is to provide a wiretwisting machine which iscapable of whirling the twistedwire directlyinto a spinning barrel take-up mechanism.

p A further object of this invention is to provide a jwire V twistingmachine with a tensionless wire pay-off and a barrel take-up mechanismto'reduce to "a minimum, the

tension which is applied to the wire.

twisting machine of small lightweight symmetrical construction whichwill first twist the wire and then whirl the twisted wire in'a revolvinghelix of more than one turn that is'made to'revolve at nearly the samespeed as the A further object of this invention is toprovide a wireagainst each: other to pull the two wires downward through the head,while at the same time imparting a twist to the wires asthe headrevolves.

FigureS is a plan view of an apertured plate which is assembledover thetwisting head and includes a series of protected-openings through whichthe fine Wire is drawn from the wire payoif means downward into thetwisting head.

Referring in detail to the drawing, and in particular to F gure 1, thereis shown a box-like framework 10 of our wire twisting machine having atwisting head 11' near the top and a spinning barrel take-up assembly 12directly beneath the twisting head. The framework 10 is constructed of aseries of angle irons welded together. in an T open box-like form with,a top plate 13, anintermediate i shelf 14 on which the twisting head 11is seated, and,

lower shelf 15 supporting a turntable 16 which carries the take-upbarrel 12. The lower shelf 15 is raised from the. bottom' of theframework 10, to allow room for the belt drive mechanism 17 whichunderlies'the turntable 16 and;

drives the barrel 12 in unison with the twisting head 11. A pair ofstanchions 18' are fixed to the top plate 13 at'equal distaneestfromacentral opening 19 in the plate;

. Wires 21' extendthrough this opening 19 before they enterthetwisting'head 11. Each stanchion 18 supports a horizontal roller 20 overwhich the wires 21 move as they are pulled from the wire pay-offmechanism (not shown). An apertured plate '22 is supported by thestanchions above the top plate 13 of the machine, and centered over thehole 19 for guiding the wires 21 as they leave the rollers 20 until theyextend through the hole 19. This plate 22, as best shown in Figure 3, isof v circular configuration with a plurality of small openings 7 23arranged in a circular fashion near the edge of the a over-deliver. Theloop of wire strikes the inner core first and then begins to grow insize ad infinitum back and forth. Actually, under normal operatingconditions the wire will strike the inner surface of the barrel and thenwill be drawn over to the outer surface of the core and then back againto the inner surface of the barrel until a flower petal pattern isformed in the barrel and builds up successive full layers until the wirespace of the barrel is full.

Having described above our novel machine and methcd for twisting finewire and paclcing the twisted wire in a barrel, it should be wellunderstood by those skilled in this art that we have simplified theconstruction of wire twisting machines and have provided a wire handlingmethod that will carefully treat the wire and .tend to eliminate faultsin the wires which were produced by the former methods of rough handlingthe wire. One of our most important contributions is the use of a wiretwisting machine that operates about a vertical axis and packs the wireso that the wire does not become untwisted and, hence, unusable.

Modifications of this invention will occur to those skilled in this art,and it is to be understood, therefore, that this invention is notlimited to the particular embodiments disclosed but that-it is intendedto cover all modifications which are within the true spirit and scope ofthis invention.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of theUnited States is:

1. A wire twisting machine comprising guide means for supporting aplurality of wires which are being drawn into the machine, a twistinghead rotatingabout avertical axis and gripping the Wires to them overthe said guides iwhile putting a continuous twist in the wires,

a rotating barrel wire take-up means positioned under I the saidrotating head to receive the-twisted wire as it is delivered from thehead, the barrel having a central core so that the wire will fill up-thebarrel in the wire space around the core, the speed of rotation of thebarrel measured as the'speed of a point on the mean circumference ofthewire space ofthebzirrel, this barrel speed differing from the linearspeed of wire output of the twisting head by an amount equal to'thepitch of the twisted wire, thereby converting axial rotation of thewire, as it emerges from the twisting head to linear mobarrel take-upmeans to provide a level fill firom bottom to top of the barrel. 1

tion by means of more than 'one complete turn of a revolving helix oftwisted wire that is whirled into the 2. A wire twisting machinecomprising guide means for supporting a plurality of wires being drawninto the machine, a twisting head rotating about a vertical axis andhaving means for gripping the wires and pulling them over the said guidemeans, while at the same time putting a continuous twist in the wireshaving a pitch that is determined as the function of the speed ofrotation of the head and the speed at which the wire is pulled by thehead, a rotating barrel take-up means positioned under the rotating headto receive the twisted wire as it is delivered from the head, the barrelhaving a central core so that the wire will fill up the barrel in thewire space around the core, the relation of the speed of delivery ofwire from the head with respect to the speed of a point on the meancircumference of the wire space of the barrel take-up means diiferingonly as the function of the pitch of the twisted wire so that the wirewill settle into the barrel at a slight acute angle to the bottom of thebarrel and will lie neatly in multiple layers, the axial rotation of thewire as it emerges from the twisting head being converted into linearmotion by means of more than one complete turn of a revolving helix asthe twisted wire is whirled into the barrel.

3. A wire twisting machine comprising guide means for supporting thewires as they travel toward each other for a, subsequent twistingoperation, the wires being acted upon by a vertically rotating headwhich pulls the wires over the said guide means while at the same timetwisting them continuously around each other, the pitch of the twistedwires being a function of the speed of rotation of the head and theamount the wires are pulled through the head for each revolution of thehead, a rotating barrel take-up means located directly under therotating head so that the twisted wire will drop into the barrel, thespeed of rotation of the barrel measured as the speed of a point on themean circumference of the wire space of the barrel, this barrel speeddifiering fromthe linear speed of wire output of the twisting head by anamount equal to the pitch of the twisted wire, the axial rotation of thewireasit emerges from the twisting head being converted into linearmotion'by more than one complete turn of a revolving helix of wire thatis being whirled into the barrel.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS403,304 Sutcliife May 14, 1889 1,070,632 Rothe Aug. 19, 1913 Gillis etal Apr. 30, 1957

